The Knight in Shining Armor came to the Damsel’s rescue today. As usual. Sometimes it’s dragons, sometimes it’s holes in the sheetrock.
The Damsel doesn’t want to discuss how this hole got there. Let’s just say it had something to do with barbells and move on.
This method is for kinda big holes. First, take a scrap of sheetrock and cut a square/rectangle that’s slightly larger than the hole. Simply score the sheetrock and then break it (pop it with the side of your hand) along the score mark, then trim the sheetrock paper.
Hold it over the hole and trace around it with a pencil.
Cut on these lines with a small saw. Careful! The Knight wants you to know in his line of work (when he’s not dragonslaying) he has seen some sad instances of people cutting into pipes and wires.
The Knight cut three sides with his little saw, and then cut the fourth side by scoring and breaking the sheetrock, because wires were behind that cut–thus avoiding cutting into hidden house guts like electrical stuff.
Take a piece of wood, like a 1×2, and cut it about four inches longer than the hole. Position it inside the hole so two inches or so lap over on the inside of the top and the bottom of the hole.
Secure with long screws. Make sure all your screws are set well in–you want them flush with the surface, or even a little bit indented. Repeat with another piece of wood as necessary for your size hole.
Now fit in your cut piece, and secure with more screws to the wood you’ve inserted.
Get out your roll of mesh drywall tape…
and cover the four sides of the square.
Trowel on some drywall compound. Mud, they call it.
When it’s dry, sand it smooth. The Knight says you may want to smooth on a little more mud at that point, and then sand again, for a really nice, invisible mend.
Also, tell your teenage son that the basement stairwell is a weird place to lift weights.
